Recently, I attended a conference sponsored by a prominent association for women who work in higher education. As I registered for the conference and took my seat to review the day's events, I was struck by the Program Schedule. At the bottom of the page following the day's chronology, there was information about the night shuttle buses running back and forth from the Hanover Inn to Thompson Arena where registrants were parked. And then followed a most striking admonition: If you choose to walk, please don't walk alone.
I'm sure most of the conference registrants, wrapped up in the general good spirit of being at a convivial event, didn't notice the irony of this statement, but it wasn't lost on me. I sat surrounded by some of the most accomplished, successful and (by all counts) amazing women in New Hampshire ... none of whom are presumed to be safe walking alone at night.
While there could be any number of ways to interpret the edict, 'please don't walk alone," it's generally fair to assume that the underlying intention of such a plea is concern -- that intangible and ever-present fear most women walk around with day to day, the dread of being attacked (read: raped). Perhaps because I spend so much of my time thinking about rape and the effect it has on women, on Dartmouth and on society, the concern expressed in this request seems especially poignant. Some women say "I don't feel unsafe, and I refuse to live my life believing I am unsafe." The reality is, many women still live their lives with their eye over their shoulder, watching their own backs, carefully constructing their lives to avoid any possibility of being attacked (read: raped). We are taught from a very young age that this is our lot in life, and we adhere to it at the urging of our fathers, mothers and grandmothers before us.
The fear of rape is not irrational. According to a report published by the National Victim Center in 1992, 683,000 rapes occur every year in America. That's 1.3 per minute, 1, 871 per day. Most rapes (at least 80 percent) go unreported, and of those that do, fewer than 30 percent result in criminal convictions. Seventy-eight percent of rapes occur between a woman and someone she knows ... which makes the request "please don't walk alone" seem a little misguided. One cannot be sure that walking with someone you know is any safer.
It would be easy to feel doom and gloom when looking at these statistics. For all the battles fought and won in America to secure equal rights for women, it seems the last frontier is changing the norms in our society which tell women everywhere to expect and anticipate violence against them at some point in their lives. It's interesting to me that many think we have "won" because we have equal (or more equal) pay, access to jobs and potential successes and better treatment from institutions in society. I firmly believe that until women can walk out the door at night without fear, we haven't won enough.
This week, April 13-17, is Sexual Assault Awareness Week. The theme for the week, "Tools to Create Change," is designed to offer events which encourage all men and women to join together in creating this universal safety for women. Larry Nadeau, speaking on Monday, is an activist and self-defense expert who has devoted his life to making sure women are prepared to fight back through the Rape Aggression Defense training program. On Tuesday, a panel of students and administrators at Dartmouth will consider the question "What exactly is consent anyway, and how is it determined/granted/denied?" On Wednesday, Laura Luciano, a senior at Rutgers, will tell her own incredible story of surviving rape and its aftermath on a college campus and what she's doing now to move her life forward with purpose. And on Thursday, we honor survivors with the display of the Clothesline Project in front of the Hop and the annual Take Back the Night March and Vigil. Finally, we'll finish up on Friday by featuring some of Dartmouth's best live musical talent at Dartmouth Unplugged. There is hope to be found in working towards change, and although Sexual Assault Awareness Week may not be the answer, it's at least a start.
Whatever your feeling about sexual assault at Dartmouth -- serious problem, overblown fallacy or somewhere in between -- I hope you'll make an effort to learn more about the issues during SAAW and the rest of the year. I urge you to listen to the stories of the women and men in our community whose lives have been changed by this tragedy. And if you feel like you're walking alone, there is help available. I hope you'll join us in working for the day when women can walk alone without fear.
